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EastEnders star will return in explosive Christmas revenge plot

Max Branning (Jake Wood) will return to EastEnders this Christmas with a shocking plan for revenge.

The ginger car dealer was wrongly imprisoned for the murder of former lover Lucy Beale (Hetti Bywater) last year, despite the truth of his innocence being known by the Beale family and his daughter Lauren (Jacqueline Jossa).

He was last seen on the soap in May when he was released from prison after the real perpetrator, Bobby Beale (Eliot Carrington), confessed to the murder. During this appearance, he refused to talk to his daughter Lauren and Abi (Lorna Fitzgerald), and sent back a letter of apology they wrote him before disappearing out of Walford in a black cab.

This means he’s had a good long time to stew over his time in prison, and true-to-EastEnders-form, Max will be back on Christmas Day to interrupt the Beale family’s Christmas celebrations.

His plans for revenge are being kept under wraps, but after seven months to plan this moment, we’re expecting something good.

Dying alcoholic Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) will also be a focus on EastEnders‘ festive plans, after the hardman and mechanic announced this week that he did not want to join the transplant list for a new liver that could save his life. However, Phil is unaware that across the square, Denise Fox (Diane Parish) is carrying his baby after a drunken fling.

It has already been revealed that EastEnders will air the departure scenes of the famous Mitchell sisters in a shocking New Year’s plot, with a number of reports suggesting a grim ending for the pair.